Sony wishes upon a Star

Sony's closing in on Star pact

Sony Pictures Television may be close to consummating a three-year production deal with “Sex and the City” creator Darren Star.

Pact would set up Star’s self-titled production shingle at Sony and would call for Star to develop and exec produce comedy and drama projects through the studio. It’s expected Star would hire a head of development to run the Sony-based company, with Star acting as an Aaron Spelling-like producer rather than focusing on writing every project.

If the deal goes through, it would rep the biggest pod deal at Sony since the studio said it was getting out of the overall deal business a few years ago (Daily Variety, Oct. 19, 2001).

Since then, Sony has focused most of its energies on the cable side of the business, though it hasn’t ignored network TV; it produces second-year CBS drama “Joan of Arcadia,” which snagged an Emmy nom for best drama last year.

Star is currently developing “Kitchen Confidential” at Fox, and last year exec produced “Miss Match” for NBC. It’s also understood Star and scribe Dana Klein are working together on a drama project that’s being produced by Sony for CBS.